Purple Rain

This time of year in Guanajuato the jacaranda trees are blooming and their purple/blue blossoms are raining on the city.

Maybe Prince has been to Guanajuato.

Kiddie Banda de Rock

I was walking along Alonso near Jardin Union on a beautiful spring morning at the end of March, 2010 when I heard a Keith Richard's electric guitar blues riff tumble out the door of an old monastary now owned by the city of Guanajuato. Naturally, I couldn't resist stopping to find out just who, what and why. It turned out that a four man rock band was tuning up there for a free rock concert to be played that afternoon in the plazuela in front of the old church, San Roque.


I liked the bluesy sound which I don't hear much of here in Mexico - so, that afternoon I showed up at the improbable start time of 4:00PM at San Roque for the concert. Boy, was I surprised!


This was a kiddie rock concert! Featured songs were about how much fun it is to jump and how we should mind our parents. But that was just for starters. I found myself sitting among lots of small kids with their parents enjoying songs delivered at a level of Spanish aimed straight for the kids - and me.


The music was really well done and fun. And there was a cast of characters which included clowns, ten-foot stilt dancers, puppets, ponies and skeletons - death having its own special "continuing" twist here in Mexico, i.e. suitable for children.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There have been two full moons since we arrived in Guanajuato, Mexico. We’ve been here now for just over seven weeks.
The most notable physical things about this beautiful place are the altitude, around seven thousand feet at the casita where we are living, and the incredible dryness of the air, - el tiempo está muy seco. Neither Alice nor I have been able to get used to either of these conditions. We “run out of breath” –oxygen- frequently and we go to sleep early. At night I am having vivid fantastical Mexican dreams. The dryness is very tough on our skin and noses. We are both having lots of nose bleeding.
So there, the bad stuff is out of the way.
This city, Guanajuato, is in many ways similar to Raleigh, North Carolina, our home for many years. The population is largely well educated and by Mexican standards middle class. The local economy is well spread out. The city of Guanajuato is the capital of the State of Guanajuato and it is the center of state government. The prestigious University of Guanajuato is smack in the middle of the city with a law school, architecture school, mining school, language schools, symphony orchestra, etc. etc. There are many other schools here. There are private schools for all levels of education, language schools and trade schools with very specific missions, for example, metal work.
Because of its beauty, its monuments, and it importance in Mexican history; Guanajuato was declared a "World Heritage Site" by UNESCO (Patrimonia de la Humanidad) in 1988. There are some structures and buildings in this city that were built in the 1500’s and 1600’s. And, it is fairly common to see buildings constructed in the 1700’s.
There are a number of large still productive gold and silver mines here. Some of these have been producing at high levels since the 1500’s. In fact, mines in this city, beginning with the Rayas and the Mellado mines which opened in 1558, literally carried the largest share of Spain’s enormous financial burden during its period of greatest power and influence.






An important point of Mexican history is that this city is considered to be “the cradle” of the First Mexican Revolution, the break away from Spain. Large numbers of Mexican tourists come here for that reason. A large statue of El Pípila, the Indian miner who was among those who first openly challenged Spain’s authority, stands overlooking the city. Juan José de los Reyes Martínez was Pípila’s real name. Pípila, as the story goes, was a young man born with defects both mental and physical. His physical deformities caused him to walk in a fashion not unlike the hen turkey and he was an object of ridicule. The nickname given to him, Pípila, is the Spanish/Mexican word for a hen turkey. Pípila was immortalized by his act of bravery when he crawled up to the wooden the doors of the Alhondiga, a fortress like granary. The Spanish were “holed up” there. Pípila braved the Spanish musket fire repelling it using a large flat stone strapped on his back. Then, he smeared tar on the wooden door and set the door afire. The door burned allowing the rebellious Mexicans to enter the building and kill the Spanish. Horrible acts of retribution by the Spanish followed, but the revolution was “on”.
The city is and has been an important art center. Great artists were born here and worked here including Diego Rivera and Chavez Morado. Among the many museums here are museums celebrating the works of both of these twentieth century artists who interpreted much of Mexico’s history in their art.
The city is FULL of beautiful public parks and they are loved and used. You would hardly know that television set exists here. Every night in the parks individual guitar player/singers, mariachi groups, renaissance lute groups, all kinds of bands and more are filling the nights with music. People are strolling around the Jardin Union listening to competing music, eating great food and kissing. Yes, kissing. Guanajuato is the city of the kiss, el beso. Aside from being a frequent pastime for people, there is a street named for kissing, Callejon del Beso (the little street or alley of the kiss). This little callejon is so narrow that you are kissing if you pass someone there. And, Besame Mucho is popular with lots of singers.
Guanajuato has a wonderful Symphony Orchestra. We were surprised when we went to hear their first concert of the season which included Leonard Bernstein’s Candide Overture, a Mendelssohn violin set with virtuoso violinist, Suliman Takalli, and a portion of Mendelssohn’s 5th Symphony, the Reform, which was written to celebrate the 300th anniversary of the Lutheran church and reflects sounds of Martin Luther’s A Mighty Fortress. The guest conductor, Albert Moehring, was from the Charlotte Symphony Orchestra in North Carolina.

Drinking is also popular. There are all kinds of great tequilas available, good wine, beer, and local mescals of exotic “curados”.
There are most unusual and delicious fruit drinks, waters (aguas) and juices (jugos) sold on the streets and in restaurants. We have tried and have delighted in such unusual and, to me, unlikely choices as cumber (pepino) juice or mango/strawberry.

Introduction to the Casa Museo Gene Byron

Gathering in the Jardin after the Concert

Today Alice and I went to a concert in Marfil, a suburb of Guanajuanto. We met a couple, John and Sue Cocoran, at Escuela Mexicana, and they told us about this concert to be held at Casa Museo Gene Byron.
The Concert Program read as follows: Concierto de violin, piano y contrabajo

Three young men performed. The piano player was very young – we heard only fifteen years old. He carried the concert playing in most of the segments sometimes by himself, a couple of times with the violinist and also with the contrabajo player. I thought that the segments with the contrabajo player were the most interesting. It turned out that the contrabajo player performs with the University of Guanajuato Orchestra. The music was wonderful.

The setting was more than wonderful. The concert was held in an old hacienda that had been converted into a museum/performance center. The grounds were lavishly planted. Flowers were blooming everywhere and were complimented by lush greenery clinging to the walled gardens.

An old man named Virgilio and his wife met us at the entrance and introduced themselves and welcomed us. It turns out that Virgilio was once married to Gene Byron

A Mexican Adventure

On January 28th, 2009 Alice and I left Morehead City, North Carolina and began a new adventure. We headed to Mexico. We finally took a long hoped for leap into the world of the Spanish language. We enrolled in a language school in the old colonial silver city and provincial capital of Guanajuato. Our faithful dog, Baby, accompanied us, and he will become a perro.

We left the USA on Saturday, January 31, 2009. We missed our flight from Raleigh because the plane we were scheduled to take to Atlanta wasn't big enough to carry Baby's kennel. We thought we had thoroughly covered that with Delta long before we left Morehead City, but they got us anyhow. Delta was very nice about it and delaying our flight was certainly best for the Babe as they would have loaded the kennel sideways to get it in the plane. And, Baby would have been traumatized. Delta put us in a nearby hotel until the next flight with a large enough cargo hold. They also gave us food vouchers, and $200 in travel vouchers for a future travel date. We were able to contact Victor Vásquez, the man whose business was to drive us from Mexico City to Guanajuato, via email on our new laptop.

The next flight went smoothly except that we arrived in Mexico City at 10:00PM Mexico City time.
We cleared customs with the kind help of a man named Israel Cundin who we met on the plane. Israel has a couple of Mexican restaurants in the Louisville KY area. He was to be visiting family in Mexico and attending a five month cooking school.

A man named Tomás Morín was at the customs entrance with a sign with our names on it when we finally cleared around 10:30 CST. Tomás drove us to Guanajuato and we arrived around 4:30AM. By 5:30 we had found our place to stay in GTO. Baby, Alice and I were all exhausted and we slept until afternoon.

The woman in whose home we are staying is named Martha Abascal. She is very nice and doesn't pronounce the H in her name. Our place is a studio apartment consisting of one big room, a kitchenette, a bathroom and a balcony. It sits literally on top of Martha's house and from the balcony there is a great view of the city. The mountain we live on is very steep. The walk down to school is fairly easy and it takes about fifteen minutes. It is damn near impossible to walk back up although we have a couple of times. We can get a cab up for 25-30 pesos, about $2US.

The school is very lively and we are both overwhelmed (abrumador). We are each taking three, one hour classes per day. So far, we love it!

A Close Encounter with Ospreys

A group of ten or so "bird banders" had been banding terns on Wainwright Island in late summer of 2008. This particular trip was a “clean up" with the goal of banding stragglers and birds missed on two excursions to Wainwright earlier in the summer. This trip also featured something a little unusual. A Brandt was mixed in with the terns.

Brandt with Terns

The Brandt was a delight to encounter. He/she was a goofy bird that couldn't fly and was taking refuge with the terns. This might have been the highlights of the day, but after we arrived back at the landing on Cedar Island and stowed all of banding gear away most of our crowd quickly dispersed. It was then that John Weske asked to the two of us who remained if we were up for a little different adventure. He suggested that we go back out into the sound to a channel marker where we had observed an Osprey nest with babies and try to band them. John, Rachel Salmon, and I jumped back on the boat and headed out to the nest.

I have always admired ospreys but I had never really looked at one close up. I was a little apprehensive as I maneuvered the boat into the tide flow and John swung onto the marker ladder with a nimble jump from the bow. He was quickly onto the nesting platform. Mom and Dad Osprey were suddenly on the scene screaming and darting through the air toward John.

Ospreys present a banding problem that is different from the problems of banding pelicans and terns as the Osprey babies are asynchronously born. Of a typical clutch of three eggs, they may have been laid -first egg till the last – several days to perhaps even a week or more apart. And, the hatching is spaced out roughly the same, rather than a clutch hatching at (more or less) the same time - as is more usual among birds. So, when we looked into this particular Osprey nest there were three babies. One - the one in the picture below - was closing in on time to fledge. The other two were much smaller, the smallest just a puffball.

Osprey Baby

John grabbed the big chick first and banded it. He wanted to get that bird out of the nest so he could gently handle the little birds as he banded them. I asked John as he handed the big bird down to me after banding it if it would bite. He, of course, told me no. - Note my right index finger where the bird immediately bit me, and notice the size of this beautiful creature's feet with new band.

Rachel Salmon with the biggest Osprey baby

I first become aware of this concept of asynchronous hatching when I read Marie Winn's book Red-Tails in Love? But having this eye to eye encounter made me think about this concept even more. What was the reason for it? What was Mother Nature up to?

A little research led me to find that this asynchronous hatching is seen in various types of raptors, and it is an adaptation to the kind of often wildly fluctuating food supply found in coastal Carolina's rivers, sounds and oceans. During seasons or times of seasons when food is in short supply, the later hatched young will probably starve as the earlier hatched young, being larger and stronger, deprive them of food (siblicide - they push their weaker brothers or sisters out of the nest) And, the size of the brood is reduced to a level in balance with the available food supply. In years of plenty all the young may be able to survive.

Shrimp

We saw this painting in Mazatlan on a trip to Mexico a few years ago and I loved it and took a picture. I am sorry, but I didn’t get the artists name. Please tell me if you know. I would be pleased to amend this caption.

Alice and I love shrimp. They are exotic beautiful creatures with pointy heads, lots of legs and graceful antennae flowing about. They fall into the category of crustaceans, salt water creatures with their skeleton on the outside. Despite this unusual placement it is a convenience for peeling them prior to eating. And, we think they are so good to eat!

What kinds of shrimp are found in our part of the world? Morehead City, NC?

What is their life cycle?

Since what we love to eat them, how can we learn to capture them for food?

We have been prospecting about our new home area with a four foot radius 3/8” mesh cast net casting all over the place while wading. Also we have been pushing around thin water in our little jon boat or one of our kayaks. We have cast our nets around the edges of the marsh. We have cast my net into creeks, channels and waterways onto hard bottom and heavy black mud. We have found ourselves tangled with oyster rocks and pilings and have caught many species of fish while trying to figure out where the shrimp are and when. So far, here is what I’ve learned.

There seem to be several kinds of shrimp native to our North Carolina coastal area. They are commonly referred to as brown shrimp, white shrimp, green tails, pink shrimp, spotted shrimp, bay shrimp, sand shrimp, grass shrimp, rock shrimp, ocean shrimp and so on – many names and confusing to the casual shrimp appreciator.

To get to the bottom of the question of just who our local shrimp are, I checked with the NC Division of Marine Fisheries and got the following info:

‘North Carolina has three main types of shrimp: brown, pink and white. Shrimp are estuarine dependent - that means they live in marshes and estuaries when they are very young because it’s safe and there is plenty of food. They grow very quickly, doubling in size every few weeks. When shrimp are almost full grown, they swim out of the estuaries into the ocean.
Shrimp are considered an annual crop because they do not live very long, only about two years. The amount of shrimp we have from year to year varies, depending on the weather. If we have a very cold winter, then we will have a small shrimp population the following spring. If we have lots of rain, then the shrimp will move out into the ocean before they are fully grown.
Shrimp are one of the most economically important fisheries in North Carolina. Most of these shrimp are caught with trawl nets in our sounds and rivers.’

Brown Shrimp (Penaeus aztecus) are North Carolina’s most abundant shrimp species and support a major commercial fishery along our central and southern coastline. Brown shrimp are spawned in the ocean and carried by tides and wind driven currents into our estuaries in late winter and early spring.
Most brown shrimp are caught in the summer and have a maximum life span of 18 months. They can grow as large as nine inches. Brown shrimp account for 68% of North Carolina’s shrimp landings.*

Pink Shrimp (Penaeus duorarum),or spotted shrimp, rank as North Carolina’s second most abundant shrimp species. Pink shrimp are spawned in the ocean April through July and carried by tides and wind driven currents into our estuaries where they overwinter.
Pink shrimp are harvested in the spring and the fall, and have a maximum life span of 24 months. They can grow as large as 11 inches. Pink shrimp account for 28% of North Carolina’s shrimp landings.*

White Shrimp (Penaeus setiferus), or green tails, are a minor species in North Carolina. White shrimp are spawned in the ocean from March to November and are carried by tides and wind driven currents into our estuaries. White shrimp are harvested primarily in the fall. These shrimp have a maximum life span of 24 months and they can grow as large as eight inches. White shrimp account for 4% of North Carolina’s shrimp landings.*

*These percentages will vary slightly from year to year.’

We have also come to believe that Grass Shrimp may make up a significant portion of the small shrimp we have taken. We identify Grass Shrimp by their more prominent little claws. Grass shrimp are locally called jumpers or popcorn shrimp.

Brown Shrimp on left, White Shrimp on right

Following is a chart describing the annual economic value of Shrimp to the state of North Carolina.

Shrimp (Heads On)
Includes brown, pink, white, and rock
YEAR POUNDS
(WHOLE WEIGHT) VALUE ($)
1972 5,563,261 $3,549,492
1973 5,003,417 $4,738,223
1974 8,440,203 $4,606,363
1975 5,163,610 $5,053,944
1976 6,642,713 $8,171,394
1977 5,600,329 $7,239,080
1978 2,960,762 $3,883,836
1979 4,941,240 $9,728,917
1980 9,823,490 $17,184,994
1981 2,557,426 $5,295,209
1982 7,027,164 $16,411,472
1983 6,115,278 $13,564,846
1984 5,046,163 $10,482,761
1985 11,683,427 $21,130,303
1986 6,162,438 $13,934,191
1987 4,416,636 $8,178,180
1988 8,139,190 $16,509,108
1989 8,922,932 $15,620,436
1990 7,839,457 $15,885,027
1991 10,740,936 $18,586,613
1992 5,496,019 $10,859,283
1993 6,778,999 $13,590,604
1994 7,294,027 $19,001,229
1995 8,669,398 $20,318,768
1996 5,271,731 $13,375,325
1997 6,988,825 $18,204,849
1998 4,636,343 $10,856,450
1999 9,004,430 $21,737,061
2000 10,334,915 $25,405,916
2001 5,254,214 $11,911,070
2002 9,969,026 $18,364,776
2003 6,167,371 $10,930,616
2004 4,880,817 $9,462,853
2005 2,354,611 $4,403,318
2006 5,736,305 $9,141,172

As can be seen above, the annual landings vary from just over 2 million pounds per year to over 10 million pounds per year. Note that Rock Shrimp are included in this count. They are an offshore species and are not a species that I am likely to encounter with my cast net although Mantis Shrimp are often misidentified as Rock Shrimp. The mantis shrimp, or stomatopod, is a flattened crustacean that has front legs modified into long, stabbing appendages. Though mantis shrimps may be eaten, the meat yield is small and of rather poor quality. They are also not my quarry.

Anatomy of a Shrimp

Brown and pink shrimps have grooves along the upper midline of the head and the upper midline of the lower region of the abdomen. The grooves on pink shrimp are slightly narrower than
those of brown shrimp. White shrimp do not have grooves, and typically have longer antennae and a longer rostrum (horn).

Postlarval and juvenile shrimp occupy the shallow, brackish waters of the sounds where they feed and grow. Growth of the young is rapid when waters are warm (above 20C). Young shrimp remain in the estuary until they approach maturity. Adult shrimp migrate offshore to spawn, and the cycle is repeated. There are seasonal variations in the spawning times of pink, brown, and white shrimp. Brown postlarvae enter the sounds in large numbers during the spring (March, April, May), with a smaller wave of immigration in the fall. Brown shrimp postlarvae that arrive on the nursery grounds in early spring will be of harvestable size by early summer. White and pink shrimp postlarvae arrive during the summer and fall, with white postlarvae being more abundant. Of the three species, white shrimp spawn closest to inshore waters with brown shrimp spawning the greatest distance from shore. Estuarine nursery areas are essential to shrimp survival, and their maintenance in a condition suitable for growth is crucial.

The two main kinds of shrimp we get here are Brown Shrimp and White Shrimp. We have caught far more White Shrimp than any other kind. White Shrimp are most readily identified by their beautiful green tails. The Spotted or Pink shrimp are mostly caught along with Brown Shrimp and are distinguished by the spots on their sides. Many locals have told us that they prefer to eat the Pinks - that they are "sweeter". They are good. We have carefully separated them from the Browns and they really may be a little sweeter, but we can't be sure that we have tasted enough of them to make a definitive statement. -yet.